The Russellville Democrat., 1887-08-03
THIRTEENTH YEAR.--NO. 29.
SOUTHERN FARMING.
Improvement in Agriculture Needfui ts
 Material Progress of the South.

N the Southern States during few years past and its results are now be- coming plainly apparent. The mate rial natural wealth of the country is being developed in surprising man ner, and capital is being invested in all sorts of industrial enterprises to very large extent. All this is exceedingly encouragingly. but it is true at the same time that agriculture lags behind other industries, and is not advancing as it should and might do. A great many farmers from the North and West have moved to the South and have introduced their methods, which are new to the newer locality, but the old farmers ito the manner born" do not take up with new ideas very rap idly; and the reign of the old fields, the barnless homestead, the washed and gullied landscape, the waste of land, the overpowering weeds, and the com fortless dwellings still continues. Az riculture never yet led the van in any course of improvement. 1t waits to be lifted up, taken by the hand as 1t were, by other and more enterprising indus tries and led in the way it should go. And Southern agriculture is precisely in this position now. Farmers who are buying corn for bread and are sell ing off the young stock in January because they have not feed enough to winter them, and who shiyer through unusual cold weather because it is too cold to go out to cut wood for the fire. say: We want railroads; we want capital, iron furnaces, factories and all that to set us on our feet and make good times." A farmer who is buy ing Western pork at fifteen cents pound readily agreed that he could have raised his own pork from his own corn had he grown three or four acres more, and would have had money in his pocket and corn and pork to sell to help provide freight for railroad in- stead of paying the road for bringing in pork for him, and thus sending out what little money he could raise to buy it with, and so keeping the country poor. This instance is a typical one. The Southern farmers are poor because they do not grow enough to eat and be- cause their crops are so small that they do not make fifty cents day for their labor. How can these things be changedp It is the old story of Jupiter and the wagoner stuck in the mire over again. ''Put your shoulder to the wheel; the gods help those who help themselves. " There is no other man in the country who can better help himself than the Southern farmer; with rich soil, Il genial climate, a market all around him, and population feeding and clothing themselves from outside of their own territory, the Southern farmer occupies the most enviable position of all farm CTS.
 Why, then, does Southern agriculture languish, and why are Southern farm CTS poor and overburdened with debtp Simply because of their poor culture of farms; their adherence to few crops; the absence of feeding crops and cattle to consume them, and their custom of buying fertilizers to make up for the lack of manure. Simply because their income is less than their outgo. It is repetition of Mir. Micawber's case. One hundred dollars income and $10l ex- penses- misery; S100 income and S99 expenses-happiness and comfort.
 The escape from this disagreeable condition is very easy if the farmers will only put their waste, worn, washed, but not impoverished old fields into clover and grass. If the lands are poor and need it, the clover may be turned under, otherwise the hay may be cut and fed to cows or cattle or sheep, and the manure put on the land and plowcd in with the sod as preparation for the common and indispensable cot ton crop, which may in this man. ner be increased five or ten fold. The same preparation will easily raise the yield of corn in the faA'rable climate to fifty bushels instead of five, and thus enable the farmer to produce all his meat and have some to sell to the so-long-wishets-for but now appar- ent mechanic and artisan, who is devel- oping the vast wealth of the forests and mines. The same result will hap pen with the wheat crop, no longer scratched in among the cornstalks by the ineffective bull tongue, but sown in good season upon well plowed and ma nured soil and smiling at harvest time with heavy nodding ears yielding thirty bushels to the acre. All this is as cer- tain as that night follows day and that the morning sun reddens the eastern sky and chases away the darkness of the night. The laws of nature are in- violable and certain. Effects follow causes in Southern fields as well as on Northern farms, and good culture, TO- tafion of crops, liberal maturing, feed ing cattla and industry lead to wealth iB the one as in the other, while the ab- seDee of these means poverty The Southern farmer has two crops which bring him cash and will always make him wealthy if he can only keep the money these bring to him, by producing whatever he consumes in the way of food and clothing Corn, wheat, clos yer, grass, millet, sweet potatoes, and their results cattle, swine. sheep, horses, mules--will supply every do- mestlc requirement, and the hundreds of millions of dollars procured by the other crops will furnish capital to e;p- Al. i. ..s- q